Liverpool signed Diaz over “Europe’s best player”

This week, Arne Slot tasted the primary really crushing defeat of his Liverpool tenure.

Liverpool are out of the Champions League, with Paris Saint-Germain profitable on penalties to arrange a quarter-final tie with Aston Villa.

Nonetheless, Liverpool are additionally 15 factors clear on the high of the Premier League, with Sunday additionally bringing the Carabao Cup ultimate in opposition to Newcastle United.

Whereas it is nearly sure that Liverpool will take pleasure in a trophy-winning season to have a good time Slot’s first yr on the helm, change is sure to be afoot this summer time, with the likes of Luis Diaz dealing with an unsure long-term future on Merseyside.

Luis Diaz’s Liverpool future

Diaz is an electric-paced and slippery winger able to inflicting even the sternest of opponents a spate of issues throughout a contest.

Solely final month, pundit Danny Murphy claimed the Colombian has “gone underneath the radar” considerably this season, shifting seamlessly from his most popular huge function to assist Liverpool within the centre-forward spot, maybe the precedence place within the switch market this summer time, together with left-back.

The issue lies in Diaz’s lack of innovative. Aged 28, time is dwindling for this gifted wideman to ever really be accepted as world-class as he merely does not have the efficiency in entrance of aim, definitely not in the identical vein as his reverse quantity Mohamed Salah.

There’s nothing improper with that, in fact. Salah has scored 32 objectives and added 22 assists throughout all competitions this season and is

However deeper evaluation highlights the cracks in Diaz’s sport. He may need scored an emphatic hat-trick in opposition to Bayer Leverkusen within the group stage of the Champions League, however he has blanked throughout all eight of his additional fixtures on the continent.

So with the £55k-per-week expertise about to enter the penultimate yr of his deal, it’s important to wonder if FSG will really feel it prudent to money in for a fairly penny whereas they nonetheless can, with Transfermarkt recording Diaz’s present market worth at about £71m.

He is been a nice servant for Liverpool and is all however set to carry the Premier League in Might. Nonetheless, FSG could really feel a bit rueful when glancing again to his £49m switch from FC Porto in January 2022, for they might have signed a celebrity rivalling Salah for the Ballon d’Or as an alternative.

Liverpool might have signed “Europe’s finest participant” over Diaz

Hindsight is barely good in, nicely, hindsight, however Liverpool’s boardroom executives should be considerably pissed off by their failure to signal one of many season’s superstars again in 2022 all the identical.

Although Diaz has carried out admirably as Sadio Mane’s inheritor down the left flank, he is solely scored 37 objectives throughout 139 matches in a Liverpool shirt, equating to a price of 0.27 per sport. Mane trumps him on this regard, together with his 120-goal return from 269 appearances marking a 0.45 strike common.

Diaz, to make sure, might have made extra of his gifted capacity, with reporter Lewis Steele even noting he had been “wasteful and irritating” by means of phases of his Liverpool profession. It makes the choice to not signal Raphinha in 2022 all of the extra bothersome.

As Liverpool tied up a deal for Diaz, the Each day Categorical – through Sky Sports activities – revealed there was real curiosity in Raphinha, then of Leeds United, however issues and monetary obstacles precluded a winter deal.

With a deal for Diaz wrapped up, Liverpool didn’t want the Brazil worldwide as Leeds fell from the Premier League. Arsenal and Chelsea tussled, but it surely was finally La Blaugrana who demonstrated the strongest pull, signing him for a £55m payment.

Quick ahead three years (nearly) and he is being hailed as “Europe’s finest participant” by the likes of Sky Sports activities journalist Dougie Critchley. Raphinha ebbed and flowed by means of his opening two years in Spain however has come alive underneath the wing of Hansi Flick.

The information backs such claims up. As per FBref, Raphinha ranks among the many high 2% of attacking midfielders and wingers throughout Europe’s high 5 leagues over the previous twelve months for objectives scored, the highest 8% for assists and the highest 9% for shot-creating actions per 90.

Although these metrics are distorted by the 28-year-old’s comparative struggles final season. Now, his 46 aim involvements in 2024/25 are bettered solely by that man Salah (54), however with Barcelona nonetheless within the Champions League, Liverpool’s talisman will little doubt be involved that he could finally lose out.

Together with Actual Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele of PSG, Raphinha is arguably the most important adversary in Salah’s solution to immortalising his identify on probably the most prestigious particular person stage, particularly if Barca do certainly carry the continental cup, for he has already chalked up 11 objectives and 5 assists from his ten seasonal shows.

Although Raphinha has performed the vast majority of his profession on the proper, it is curious that he ought to be having fun with his most prolific time period but on Barcelona’s left. This bolsters the argument he would have been a sensational signing for the Reds, with such a potent menace easing Salah’s burden and maybe even making the Egyptian even higher.

It might have been a partnership for the ages. No disrespect to Diaz however he is the identical age as Raphinha and dwarfed in regard to scientific output.

Liverpool missed the mark with this one.